


Try Again

by MVforVictory



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Office, Bad Puns, Barista Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun, CEO Suh Youngho | Johnny, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Kim Jungwoo is a Little Shit, M/M, Overuse of italics, Sad Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun, Straight Panic, Strangers to Lovers, Suh Youngho | Johnny-centric, moderately slow updates to be expected, rating will change later, that's a tag lmao ok, this starts like a crack fic but sure doesn't end like one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:28:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29826348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MVforVictory/pseuds/MVforVictory
Summary: Johnny truly, truly didn't mean to, but he couldn't help but find himself enamored by Jaehyun. The quiet barista with eyes that glitter and bruises that bleed onto his pale skin like watercolors.Or, Johnny is a CEO that's sick of the monotony of his life. Jaehyun is a welcome addition.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Jungwoo/Nakamoto Yuta, Past Son Seungwan | Wendy/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 18
Kudos: 69





	Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> i told discord to convince me not to post this right away and they told me to do it instead so this is their fault sorry
> 
> this is....slightly edited lmao what do yall really expect anymore from me  
> but also i wrote half of this in one go and that _hasn't_ been edited, or like even read over lmao soz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to both Lume and Saturn for reading this over for me <33 mushluv

It all started with a latte.

* * *

It didn’t come as a surprise to Johnny when his favorite coffee shop unexpectedly closed down. Life seemed to work like that for him, one good thing would happen, followed immediately by two bad things. Admittedly, he knew it wasn’t really fair to put the closing of a coffee shop on the same level as his girlfriend of 4 years _(not just girlfriend—his fiancé,_ his brain unhelpfully supplied) leaving him, but Johnny wasn’t sure if the sum of both occurrences was worth this promotion.

Johnny wasn’t even entirely sure it was a promotion he wanted—Being put in charge of his _own branch_ of a company was daunting and stressful. It added a lot of hours onto his already-overbearing workload, but maybe that was what he needed. Time at a desk to distract from the emptiness of his apartment. 

The same apartment that once seemed so full of life, not even a full year ago. The same apartment that he had picked out with Wendy, putting aside his own reservations and focusing solely on her wishes.

_‘These counters are better than the ones at the last place, see? Less baby-proofing we’ll have to do later on.’_

Johnny had been ready for _later on._ Johnny had been ready for _later_ _on_ since he met Wendy, when she marched up to him and, in front of his entire senior Economics class, announced that he was going to take her on a date that night. Eight o’clock sharp, and if he was even a minute late, she was going to make him pay for every date after.

It was safe to say he was promptly right on time.

The beginning of their relationship had been a whirlwind romance that came with the excitement of their last spring break. Days spent driving between states, finding as many hole-in-the-wall shops as they could, and filling their backpacks with memories of each city. Nights spent on the beach of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron—curled around one another on a blanket in the sand. Content with just the company of each other.

It was love, Johnny had been sure of that. He had loved Wendy with every fiber of his being. Grad school had been an easy decision, he chose the same as her, moving countries to be together. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, nothing he wouldn’t give her.

Except, the one thing she wanted more than anything.

_‘I—I know I should have told you, but I thought there was always a chance…We can still try. We can—’_

_‘We’ve been trying! I’ve been off the pill for months now, Johnny. And for what?’_

_‘There’s still time. We’re—We’ve only recently been talking about marriage, we’re still young.’_

And they were. At least, Johnny had thought so. Wendy argued that she was already 26 and most of her friends from school had already settled down, had a kid, some even with two. Johnny couldn’t really dispute that, but there was little he could do, outside of suggesting other things they could try.

He should have known.

Johnny’s internship-turned-career gave him little time to himself, but all of that time had gone to Wendy. He thought they were happy, he thought _she_ had been happy, but that was clearly a mistake on his part. He should have known something was wrong when she stopped telling him he needed to work less, when she stopped badgering him about a new fertility test they could try. He should have known, but he didn’t, and he proposed anyway.

She said yes.

Six months later, he found out she had been cheating on him, even before any fertility-related issues had been revealed, with a man nearly 10 years his senior and too much money than he knew what to do with.

Johnny hadn’t even tried to listen to her excuses. He merely told her she had a week to get all of her stuff out of his apartment and return his key.

That had been nearly 11 months ago, and there were still days where Johnny woke up, expecting to see Wendy’s sleep-tangled hair and puffy cheeks, but was only met with untouched sheets and cold pillows.

“Hi! Welcome to National Grind, can I interest you in trying our specialty drink of the day?”

Johnny blinked.

The man in front of him blinked back.

 _Coffee._ Right, that was what Johnny was doing. Getting coffee. New coffee shop. This employee had really, really—

“Nice dimples.”

The man giggled, he _giggled,_ making Johnny’s head snap up and face go hot with embarrassment. He couldn’t be too mad at himself, however, because the laughter only caused the employee’s dimples to deepen. Johnny couldn’t ever remember seeing dimples like this. Not even Wendy’s.

“Thanks,” the man— _Jaehyun,_ as it said on his nametag—Jaehyun chirped back, standing up straight and no longer leaning his weight against a palm braced on the counter.

He was tall, likely only a few centimeters shorter than Johnny himself, with peachy-pink hair and skin so smooth it almost looked like porcelain. He was easily one of the most attractive people Johnny’s met—and he was friends with Taeyong, so that was saying something.

 _Jaehyun_ was still looking at him with a small, expectant smile, and Johnny finally remembered that he was here for coffee, not to stare at confusingly-beautiful men with dimples deeper than the sea.

“Can I just have a large, triple Americano,” Johnny scrubbed a hand over his face. He was exhausted, more tired than he could ever remember being, but he knew that couldn’t be the case. Not when he’s felt like this for the past year. Tired and strung-out. Stretched thin across too many projects, and he only had himself to blame for that.

“Of course! Will that be all?”

His voice was nice. Smooth and deep. Johnny was exhausted. He nodded, pulling out his card without truly hearing the price and jamming it into the chip reader with little finesse. He waited for it to beep at him once, twice, a third time before actually remembering that _this was when he took it out,_ and Jaehyun was laughing at him _again._

Who could even be that cheery at barely half past 5? Let alone someone working in _retail._ Johnny had tried once, freshman year of college, to work in a Starbucks just off-campus, but the people of Chicago had been ruthless and crazed when it came to their too-expensive coffee orders. It was safe to say Johnny barely made it the season before putting in his two-week notice and bagging a job at a Lowe’s just out of town, where all he had to deal with was older women with too-specific shades of paint that they needed him to mix.

He stepped to the side, thankful that no one had been behind him to witness his mental-buffering in real-time, and waited for his coffee to be called.

The office was going to be extra hectic in the coming weeks, with their newest batch of interns slowly assimilating with the few that stayed with them from the last year, on top of the renovations to both the fifth and tenth floors Johnny had to oversee. 

He was thankful he had someone like Taeyong as his partner, since Johnny sometimes found himself focusing too much on the small details. Taeyong was good at pulling him back and forcing him to see the big picture, when it was needed. They worked well together, despite constantly being pitted against each other when _they_ had first started as interns.

(He had a feeling that something similar was going to blossom between Donghyuck and Renjun. Or, at least, Johnny hoped so, because both boys were too bright to waste so much energy hating one another.)

Next time, he should pick up some sweets for the interns, and some of the other floor staff, for putting up with his wishy-washy moods in the last few months.

God only knew they deserved it.

* * *

“Welcome to National Grind! Can I interest you in our special of the day?”

“Uh, can—Can I just get a triple Americano?”

“Large?”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

Last time, Johnny hadn’t even looked twice at the name on his cup, expecting some butchered hangul of his name—really, he should just use ‘Youngho’ and call it a day—but this time, something was just telling him to look at the side of the cup.

Maybe it was Jaehyun’s smile when he called out Johnny’s name, small and friendly but still taking his breath away in the most peculiar way. He didn’t know what it was about the man, ignoring the fact that he was a _man,_ that made Johnny lose focus for a few, brief seconds, but there was just…something about him.

 _‘I made this coffee_ **_espresso-ly_ ** _for u~’_

Which, okay, Johnny would have to admit his heart fluttered _a bit_ when he read that, but it was the feeling of giddiness that stayed with him for the rest of his commute to work that really confused him.

It was just a cup of coffee with some sharpie scrawled on the side. 

Johnny shook his head. It was ridiculous, anyway.

“What’s got you in such a good mood,” Jungwoo, his secretary, asked a few minutes after Johnny got himself situated at his desk, cup sleeve discretely taken off the drink and placed in one of the drawers. Away from Jungwoo’s prying eyes and nosey disposition, and hopefully being away from Johnny’s own eyes would get the damn thing out of his head. Out of sight, out of mind—or, whatever that bullshit was.

“Well, I _was_ in a good mood,” he said, pointedly raising an eyebrow in Jungwoo’s direction, “Don’t you have something you could be doing right now? Something that _isn’t_ violating my personal space and rearranging my belongings.”

Jungwoo stopped what he was doing, shooting Johnny a guilty smile and turning the picture of his mother back around, “Oh, right. Well, you see, I came in here to tell you that there’s been an… _issue…_ on the seventh floor.”

“An issue?” Johnny repeated, unimpressed, “Did Jisung break the printer again?”

Jungwoo threw himself down in the seat he had been leaning against, kicking a leg over the side, “Yup.”

Johnny sighed. This would be the third time he’s had to contact maintenance about this damn printer, and he doesn’t know _why_ Jungwoo refuses to, outside of _‘Hyung, I can’t! I accidentally hooked up with his twin brother thinking it was him!’_

Johnny tried not to question the man too much. Fewer headaches that way.

Just as he was standing and about to remove his jacket, Jungwoo decided to continue with, “I don’t think maintenance is going to be able to fix it this time,” he unhelpfully added, following Johnny as he walked out of his office, “I’m fairly certain Jaemin’s coffee cup jammed down the fax receiver made sure of that.”

Johnny stopped. Jungwoo bumped into his back with an _‘Oof!’_ But he paid it no mind.

“His…what?”

* * *

It was barely six in the morning, and Johnny could already feel himself sweating through his shirt. July wasn’t going to be friendly this year, it would seem; the temperatures reaching even higher than they had in June, and Johnny had barely survived that. 

He knew he really shouldn’t complain, as he had all of a block’s walk between the parking garage and the company building, but even that block felt like it stretched on forever when there was 28° of sun beating down on your slate-grey Giorgio Armani wool suit. 

His one saving grace would have to be the coffee shop he found himself frequenting nearly every day now, the bell chiming above his head each time he opened the door now a familiar sound.

“Good morning!” Jaehyun greeted, “Welcome to National Grind. Would you like to try today’s special?” He asked, placing a hand on the small cardboard standee in front of the register.

It was something on ice, and that was all that mattered to Johnny. Drinking hot coffee on a day like today sounded like a death wish, one that he would happily pass on.

“Can I get it with double espresso?”

“Of course! Can I get you anything else?”

 _‘Please let me poke your dimple.’_ “Uh, no,” Johnny gave a polite smile in response, “That’s everything.”

This time, after sliding his card back into his wallet, Johnny waited for Jaehyun to turn around before dropping a 10,000 Won note into the _Tip Jar_ in front of him. When Jaehyun spun back around with his drink, Johnny tried not to let himself blush when their hands touched.

That was the best part about coming here so early, there usually wasn’t a line behind him, and Johnny could watch Jaehyun make his drink, rather than passing it to the shorter man he occasionally caught glimpses of behind the high-rise section of the counter.

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” Jaehyun grinned, bright and blinding, “See you tomorrow?”

For a second, Johnny had been taken aback by that, before he realized he came in almost every weekday at roughly the same time, so it was only fair to assume he would do the same thing tomorrow, and that meant Johnny has been standing here staring at Jaehyun’s face for too many seconds.

“Uh—Yeah, probably. You make good coffee.”

He cursed himself for how awkward and clunky the sentence sounded after. Johnny wasn’t _awkward._ Mark was awkward. Johnny was smooth. Johnny was confident. Johnny was— 

Incredibly distracted by this man’s dimples.

“Perfect. I’ll see you then.”

_‘don’t worry, be_ **_frappé_ ** _:3’_

Johnny was so, so screwed.

* * *

“What’s it say today?”

Johnny’s fingers paused over his keyboard, looking up at Jungwoo with a raised eyebrow, “SM is in the works of acquiring Label V and merging?”

Jungwoo rolled his eyes, pushing several _important_ papers to the side to make room for his elbows. He propped his chin on his hands, starring Johnny down with a stupid, cheeky smirk, “You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” he sing-songed, “What’s the cup say~”

“The cup doesn’t say anything.”

_“Johnny~”_

“No, Jungwoo.”

“What’s the cup say~”

“The cup says you’re going to be fired if you keep badgering me.”

Jungwoo pouted, “You wouldn’t. I’m the only one that the interns listen to.”

Johnny wished he could argue back, but he really couldn’t. As long as Taeyong was stuck in meetings at SM about acquiring Label V, Johnny was on his own with Neo, with only Jungwoo keeping the seventh floor from burning. 

Donghyuck stopped listening to him after his first month with them, and Renjun was too busy trying to fight (fuck?) him any chance he got to listen to Johnny. Jisung was scared of him, but Jisung was scared of everyone. Which left Jeno and Jaemin, who were in their own world most of the time.

Mark was really the only good one. God, that was sad.

“‘Rise and grind! Seize the day~” Jungwoo read off the cup he snatched from Johnny’s desk, leaning back and holding the cup out of Johnny’s reach to laugh at him, “That’s cute. Is it the same girl every time?”

That made Johnny stop trying to snatch the cup back.

Of course, Jungwoo would think it was a girl. That was the logical conclusion to draw, but it wasn’t the correct one. It would make the most sense that the barista drawing smiley faces and writing puns on his cup would be a girl, but that wasn’t the case. It was a man. A man that Johnny found really, really pretty. 

For the first time in his life, Johnny was questioning his sexuality.

“Jungwoo…Can I ask you something that’s totally not appropriate because I’m your boss?”

“Hyung, I bought condoms for you once.”

“Right,” Johnny groaned at the memory, and all of the teasing that followed, “But I’m being serious.” Several seconds of silence stretched on, but Johnny’s head was buried in his crossed arms, missing whatever face Jungwoo was likely making at him. “How…How did you know you were gay?”

Jungwoo made a low humming noise, “Well, if I’m being honest, it was just, kind of, always a thing? I was that very stereotypical gay kid. I raided my mom’s closet and walked around in her heels, talked about the boys at my school with my sister, got my heart broken by a straight football player.”

“That doesn’t _help.”_

“It’s the truth. I never really had that ‘coming of age’ thing where I suddenly realized I was into dick and not pussy.”

When Johnny finally brought himself to look up, Jungwoo had acquired a lollipop from _somewhere_ and was sucking on it with far too much vigor to be acceptable. “Tell me why I haven’t fired you?”

The lollipop was pulled out with an audible _smack,_ “Because you don’t have any friends anymore since you never leave this office, which means you have to ask your secretary shit like you don’t have access to the internet. Remember, you started this.”

“No, you’re right. I know you’re right,” Johnny sighed again—something becoming a too-frequent occurrence, these days—and pushed his chair away from his desk. Jungwoo being right was also becoming a frequent occurrence, and that wasn’t helping Johnny’s predicament.

“So, I’m taking that as you telling me the barista writing _these,”_ Jungwoo pointedly shook the cup he was still holding, “Is a dude, and you want to bone him.”

“It’s not—” Johnny uselessly tried to argue back, “It’s not that I want to bone him. He’s just—I don’t know. Pretty? I think he’s really pretty? Which doesn’t feel like the right word to use because it’s not even like he’s…feminine, or anything, which is what really doesn’t make sense. He looks like a _dude._ Like, sharp jaw, adam’s apple. The whole nine yards,” Johnny waved his hand around, not really thinking about the words coming out of his mouth, rather just the need to _say them._ To lay all of his cards out on the table.

“Okay, that’s a start.” Jungwoo finally set his coffee back down, and Johnny grabbed it without a moment of hesitation, “You think this one specific guy is attractive. Maybe it’s less of a gay thing, and he’s just, like, the exception?”

“Maybe,” Johnny mused. He couldn’t believe he was talking about this to Jungwoo, of all people. “But, after nearly two decades of thinking about boobs and suddenly I’m—what? Bi-curious?”

“To be fair, Yuta was straight until I put my dick in him—”

“I didn’t need to know that—”

“—And now he’s—What is he? Pan? I think he goes with pan now,” Jungwoo mumbled to himself before focusing back on Johnny, “Basically, how do you know you’re really straight if you’ve never fucked a guy—”

“I’ve never _wanted_ to fuck a guy—”

“—Because the straightest thing you can do is fuck a guy and not like it, right? That’s the only way you know for sure—”

“Oh my god, please. Shut up,” Johnny pressed his palm over Jungwoo’s mouth, only to pull it back seconds later as a warm, wet tongue slid over it, “You’re fucking disgusting and Yuta is corrupting you. You’re starting to sound exactly like him and his god damned ‘fuck the patriarchy’ mentality towards _everything.”_ Not that Johnny didn’t agree, but sometimes…He wasn’t too sure about that man. That had no place in Johnny’s fast-food choices. Some things had to remain free of Yuta’s anarchic attitude. 

“It’s a good mentality to have—”

“Not when he’s trying to convince me of how unethical McDonald’s is when I haven’t eaten all day.”

“You know, that’s fair.”

Johnny really needed another coffee.

  
  


“So,” Jungwoo knocked against his side as they were walking through the hallways, “Mr. Heteronormative going gay for a barista…Kind of sounds like a K-Drama, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you,” Johnny groaned. Jungwoo had barely allowed him a full hour free of his merciless ribbing before it seemed he was picking it back up, “And it’s not even a _gay_ thing, okay? It’s not—It’s just, like, I want to press my finger into his dimple and see if it sticks like that?”

Jungwoo paused to think for a second, “Yeah, that’s pretty gay.”

* * *

The next time Johnny found himself at the shop, it was somehow even earlier than his usual time: with the sky still dark and the clouds bringing with them the promise of rain in the near future. He wasn’t even sure the place would be open, but the dim lights on the inside still prompted him to check.

He wasn’t immediately greeted upon entrance, like usual, and instead was met with the sight of Jaehyun’s broad back from where he was stood on a small step-ladder, writing the daily specials on the board with practiced motions. 

And then Johnny noticed something.

_“You should know that—I’m always on your side.”_

Jaehyun was quietly singing along to the song playing on the radio. He strained his ears to catch it, belatedly realizing Jaehyun’s English pronunciation was actually very good, and so was his voice.

_“Please remember, my answer is you.”_

Johnny didn’t notice he had been just standing there until the song ended, and before he knew it Jaehyun was turning around, not giving Johnny any time to wipe the stupid look off his face before their eyes met.

Jaehyun’s face lit up bright red, his gaze darting to the floor as his lips stretched into an embarrassed smile, pink tongue poking out through his teeth. He hopped off the stool, converse slapping against the polished wood floor. 

It was different, seeing him like this. Johnny knew he was tall, but without the counter in the way, he was able to see just how much of Jaehyun’s body was _leg._ Even with the apron tied around his waist, it was easy to see how slim his hips were, how fitted his shirt was around his chest. It was not at all like Wendy’s petit, yet curvy build, but Johnny swore he felt the same way as the first time he saw her. _Charmed._

Jaehyun was _charming,_ was all. That must be it. 

“Ah, sorry about that,” Jaehyun chuckled, “I guess I didn’t hear you come in. Did you just want your usual?”

Johnny watched him step back behind the counter—he wasn’t looking at his butt, seriously—and he was about to nod before _something_ changed his mind, “Ah, actually…Surprise me?”

“Surprise you…?”

“Yeah. Surprise me.”

Barely five minutes later, Johnny was handed something with a lot of whipped cream and too much caramel to be considered reasonable. Jaehyun was looking at him expectantly, and Johnny said a preemptive prayer for his heart before putting his lips around the straw.

It took everything in him not to let his eye twitch when the drink hit his tongue, but the amount of caramel was _definitely_ too much to be considered reasonable, at least for his taste. He could see how someone like Jaemin, or even Jungwoo, would love this drink, and he made a mental note to tell the intern to check this place out sometime.

“You don’t like it,” Jaehyun softly noted, a soft chuckle ringing in Johnny’s ears, “Hmm, maybe the caramel was a little too much. Let me make you your usual to make up for it, and tomorrow…”

Johnny swallowed. The drink turned his chest ice-cold.

“…We could try again?”

* * *

The first week of August passed in a blur of paperwork and a rush of meetings. Taeyong was finally back with him at Neo, joined by two transfers from Label V—Ten and Kun. The two men were very, very different, but worked as well together as Johnny and Taeyong did, the kind of relationship that could only be cultivated from spite before being twisted into an actual, friendly partnership.

Ten and Jungwoo hit it off almost immediately, which didn’t really bid well for Johnny’s sanity, but Ten was still professional in (almost) every sense of the word, even if Kun whacked him on the back of the head when he made an innuendo.

Meaning Johnny hasn’t had time to visit National Grind all week, leaving him with the nasty, burnt-tasting coffee from the machines at the office. So, it was safe to say he was looking forward to this.

Just as Johnny reached for the door, it was pushed open and nearly hit him in the face. Jaehyun came stumbling out, and Johnny barely had half a mind to reach out and steady him, one hand catching his forearm and the other…on his waist.

“Sorry!” Jaehyun squeaked out, “I wasn’t looking where I was going. Sorry,” he apologized again, even as he made no move to back away from Johnny’s grip.

At least, not until Johnny looked down at where his palm was resting against Jaehyun’s hip, or where his fingers were still splayed out over Jaehyun’s arm. That was when Jaehyun seemed to notice the position they were in as well, taking a step back and nearly tripping against the rise of the doorframe.

Johnny managed to prevent him from falling _again,_ but this time, their positions were a little…closer.

“Um,” Jaehyun’s voice managed to take on an even higher tone, “This is really embarrassing.”

He was wearing green contacts, Johnny belatedly noticed. Green contacts that looked really, really nice with his pink hair, along with the light dusting of color over the bridge of his nose, and the matching shimmer of peach on his eyelids that made the contacts pop even more. Jaehyun was wearing makeup, however light it may be, but _Jaehyun was wearing makeup._

“You look really…nice,” Johnny breathed out, before mentally smacking himself and straightening both of them back up, “I—Sorry. That wasn’t appropriate.”

He smoothed his hands down the front of his jacket, pressing out creases that weren’t actually there and trying to force down the color he could feel rising on his own cheeks.

He could see Jaehyun doing the same thing to his white button-up out of his peripheral before Johnny heard a small gasp, and Jaehyun’s hand was on Johnny’s arm now.

“Oh! Thank you for catching me, really, but I’ve gotta go,” he gave Johnny a bright smile, “I’ll see you tomorrow though, right?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.”

And with that, Jaehyun was gone. Johnny tried not to watch him jog down the sidewalk, but the light acid-wash jeans were too striking not to follow.

He wasn’t sure why he felt disappointed, seeing him leave, but he still pulled open the door of the shop and stepped inside.

There was no greeting, but stood at the register was a girl Johnny didn’t remember ever seeing there before. She took his order with a plastic-like smile and empty-looking eyes, much more fitting of a teenager working at a coffee shop, if you asked Johnny, but that only made him miss Jaehyun’s bright eyes and charming smile even more.

While she was making his drink, Johnny couldn’t help but catch part of her conversation with the shorter man he usually saw alongside Jaehyun. 

“I can’t believe I had to come in early to cover for Jaehyun because he wanted to go on a last-minute date with his stupid, hot boyfriend. Like, there wasn’t any real reason for him to even come in.”

The man sighed, “Yeri, Jaehyun was at least considerate enough to open the store for you and get everything ready, even though he requested this day off last week.”

Johnny didn’t really hear anything after _boyfriend._ After the words _hot boyfriend_ and _Jaehyun_ were spoken in the same sentence. There was no real reason to feel disappointed, not even slightly, but he couldn’t help it.

Jaehyun had a boyfriend. That was fine. At least now Johnny knew he was into guys, not that it should matter, because Johnny wasn’t. 

The disappointment stayed with him, forming a hollowed-out pit in his stomach, one he tried filling with too-watery Americano. From a cup with no sharpie scrawled on the side, outside of the _‘Jyani’_ from when she asked his name.

It was ridiculous, Johnny was perfectly aware of that fact, but even that wasn’t enough for him to stop thinking about it. To stop wondering what Jaehyun’s _stupid,_ _hot boyfriend_ looked like. Johnny wondered if he was taller than Jaehyun, or even taller than he himself was. 

Sooyoung greeted him with a smile as he walked into the company building, still grinning even when Johnny gave her barely a nod of acknowledgment back. He thoughtlessly made his way to the fifth floor, where his main office was located, pressing the button in the elevator with a little more force than necessary. 

The doors opened to reveal chaos. Johnny wasn’t fast enough to press a different floor button before Jungwoo pushed his way inside, nearly getting caught by the door and forcing it to reopen.

“Johnny!”

“Jungwoo.”

“Let’s take a walk,” Jungwoo grinned, pressing nearly _every fucking button on the elevator_ and ignoring Johnny’s protests, “Okay, spill. Why do you look like someone pissed in your coffee?”

“Piss would probably taste better,” Johnny mumbled as he glared at the cup in his hand, “And nothing happened. It’s stupid.”

“Those are two different answers,” Jungwoo pointed out, “Is it nothing, or is it stupid?”

“Both.”

“It can’t be both—”

“Jaehyun has a boyfriend.”

For several bliss-filled seconds, Jungwoo was quiet. Staring at Johnny with his mouth open slightly, likely caught mid-word and having to re-evaluate his tactics at Johnny’s quick acquiescence to answer.

Finally, he seemed to collect himself, “Jaehyun? Is he your coffee boy?” He eyed the cup in Johnny’s hand with an inquisitive look, “What? No dad joke today?”

“He didn’t make it. Which is why it tastes like sewer water.”

And, really, how did she manage to fuck up an Americano? It was literally just espresso and water. That was it. _That was it._

“Oh.”

Jungwoo was very rarely at a loss for words. This seemed to be one of those times. 

“Yeah.”

“Are you…okay?”

Was he okay? Ultimately, Johnny was fine. He had no reason not to be fine. Jaehyun wasn’t…someone important in Johnny’s life. He barely even knew anything about the other man, but he _wanted_ to, and that might be the problem. 

Johnny wanted to know more about Jaehyun. He wanted to know what kind of coffee he liked, he wanted to know what Netflix shows he liked to watch. He wanted to hear him sing more. He wanted to— 

He wanted to know if Jaehyun had back dimples, and if they were as deep as the ones on his cheeks.

Jaehyun brought feelings of contentedness that Johnny hasn’t had in over a year. Hasn’t had since he revealed to Wendy that there was a high chance that they wouldn’t be able to have kids without _some_ kind of help. Feelings that Johnny just didn’t have time to sit down and sort through. 

“I don’t know.”

The elevator opened again on a random floor and Johnny stepped out. He was feeling too claustrophobic stuck in there.

* * *

Johnny, truthfully, didn’t remember the weekend passing. The hours started blurring together after he opened the bourbon Saturday afternoon. His CBS account showed that he had rewatched two (and a half) seasons of Survivor in that time, but he wouldn’t have been able to say which ones had they not been right on his screen. 

Monday morning brought a hangover from hell—Johnny would go as far as saying he hadn’t drunk enough to warrant a hangover this bad, but that could also probably be blamed on dehydration.

And Johnny wasn’t going to do anything about it, other than drink too much coffee and down three Excedrin. 

He opened the door of the coffee shop, not sure if the pounding in his head lessening was due to the sharp smell of coffee, or if he was just placebo-ing himself with the knowledge that he was going to see Jaehyun.

It was another too-early morning, where the lights were still dim and Jaehyun was back on the stool, doing what looked like changing prices on the bakery items. 

The same song as last time was playing, but this time, Jaehyun wasn’t singing along.

He waited, watching Jaehyun rewrite the same item three times, each time huffing and rubbing it away with the side of his hand before trying again. After the fourth time, he sighed, stepping down from the stool and tossing the chalk somewhere behind the counter.

Somehow, he still hadn’t noticed Johnny, and he was about to speak up when Jaehyun sat down on the stool. Well, _sitting_ would be putting it lightly, it was more like he let himself fall, and the stool just happened to be under him.

Was he being creepy? Watching Jaehyun push his glasses up— _fuck, he looked really cute in glasses_ —to rub at his eyes, then pulling the glasses off entirely as he raked his hands through his hair. 

Jaehyun looked up, eyes going wide with surprise as he scrambled up from the stool. He still hadn’t placed the glasses back yet, which gave Johnny an unobstructed view of his eyes. 

“Johnny—”

“What happened?” Johnny couldn’t help but ask, worry immediately taking over every other feeling Johnny was having this morning. Maybe it wasn’t his place to ask, but it was already too late.

Jaehyun was still looking at him with that lost look, which did nothing to hide the red taking over half of his left eye, or the bruising that Johnny could barely make out under a layer of concealer. Jaehyun seemed to right himself then, fixing a small smile onto his face, “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

He laughed, but it sounded hollow, and not at all like the melodic sound Johnny knew it usually did. Jaehyun was smiling like it was the only thing keeping him from falling apart. 

“What can I get you?”

The glasses were back in place, but Johnny couldn’t stop staring at the bruise. He could see how uncomfortable it was making Jaehyun, but he _couldn’t look away._

“Surprise me?” Johnny finally mumbled. He finally let the tension bleed from his shoulders, realizing it likely wasn’t doing anything but making Jaehyun even _more_ uncomfortable. “Something good for hangovers.”

Now, with something to do, Jaehyun’s face lit up before pursing his lips in thought, “Do you like ginger?”

“I like it enough,” Johnny said, watching Jaehyun grab the largest cup and move behind the high-rise counter, hiding him from Johnny’s view for a few seconds before his head peaked back around. 

“You could,” he started, not meeting Johnny’s eyes, “Come back here?” At Johnny’s surprised look, he quickly continued on with, “No one is gonna be here for another, like, 20 minutes…”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

Finally, Jaehyun smiled. _Really_ smiled. Dimples appearing in his cheeks and bringing with them the insane and incessant urge to poke them. But, also, Johnny saw Jaehyun wince as the action likely pulled at the bruising along his cheekbone, and he was all at once reminded of the broken look in the other man’s eyes.

Jaehyun walked around the counter, right up to Johnny, and grabbed the sleeve of Johnny’s (expensive) jacket to pull him around. Johnny couldn’t do anything but follow. He watched Jaehyun as he added a bunch of different powders and syrups into a shaker—Johnny could only recognize the cinnamon and ginger—with…pineapple juice? Alongside a few other things.

His eyes locked on Jaehyun’s forearms as he mixed everything in the shaker together, then poured it over a cup of ice before presenting the bright yellow drink to Johnny with a grin.

“Try it.”

Ignoring any and all skepticism at the color, Johnny snagged a straw from the counter, unwrapped it, and stuck it into the drink. He shot Jaehyun one last raised eyebrow before trying it. 

It was…interesting.

The pineapple was strong, but not overwhelming, and so was the ginger; but all-in-all, Johnny actually found himself liking it more with each sip. 

Johnny could only wonder if Jaehyun felt the same thing he did when their fingers touched.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are always appreciated~~
> 
> follow me on Twitter [@MVforVictory](https://twitter.com/MVforVictory) and check out my other stories while you're here!! (i just started a bunch lmao rip me)


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